Started to the road yesterday, builder arrived unannounced ( normal) said he'd be here last Monday etcMethod, stick some c section steel on the ground held in with rebar smashed into the ground.Width of steel 10cm = thicknes of road, using 210ksc, was gonna use 180, price 1680 per cube, 32 cubes coming today.....am praying rain holds off!!As usual, and I know youve all been waiting for the drama part, yesterday I asked the concrete people if they wanted some fish, I rowed out strung the net across and got them 5 fish all big.Today they have decided this means they can now get in my boat and fish at will.......well one of them did. Ive told the boss I dont want this man here tomorrow.Unbelievable, give em an inch etc.Harvested 20 tons of pineapples and sold them for £2500, price at a high now9 baht per kilo.

Method of embedding the steel mesh is to pour halfway the thickness of the road then drop the mesh on and then pour the other half on top, this makes sure its in the middle and works reasonably well as long as 5-6 people stand on it to pin it down, pictures to follow later although i fear the next week will be write off as the weather is getting worse and the last thing we need is heavy rain especially near the lake as concrete slurry pouring in will kill the fish.Still the rain will help with yesterdays curing

Rain stops play...play being the word, had yesterdays crew stealing my fish out the pond, call to builder, its my fault for "giving them fish" the day before.............cant see us using this bloke again EVER. Im going to get him to finish the bit around the water then tell him cheerio.Even my Wife was staggered by his response.Compared to the driveway entrance they did last year this work is below par, its not awful but it aint great.

If you want to take my advice and seeing as it's free you don't have to follow it. I would be taking an angle grinder with a masonry disc and cutting false joints across every 3 to 6 mts max . That way when the cracks start appearing they should mostly be where you made the cuts.? A rule of thumb with large stretches of concrete, never more than 6mt panels without expansion joints, concrete expands and contracts with the weather. Have a look at the next Service station fore court, a well constructed one will be in panels , the others well.

Dont worry Mike this is already in the plan, they will cut them in shortly and ill probably run a bead of silicone or bitumen down them, they had to leave yesterday and couldnt come today due to bad weather, theyll be back in about 3 days.

You need to get those control joints in immediately. Once shrinkage cracks start, it's too late. In America they want them in so quick that they will use special green concrete saws that work shortly after the pour. The spacing of the control joints depends on a number of factors such as shape that hopefully you have calculated. But the depth rule is pretty easy--1" or 1/4 the concrete thickness, whichever is greater. I like running a circular saw against a board to make them straight and quick with a consistent depth. But actually in an application that takes traffic like this it would have looked better and hold up better to use a cheap hand concrete groover to make the control joints when the concrete was wet so that the sides are smooth and consolidated instead of a rough cut by saw that can chip and flake off.

canopy wrote:You need to get those control joints in immediately. Once shrinkage cracks start, it's too late. In America they want them in so quick that they will use special green concrete saws that work shortly after the pour. The spacing of the control joints depends on a number of factors such as shape that hopefully you have calculated. But the depth rule is pretty easy--1" or 1/4 the concrete thickness, whichever is greater. I like running a circular saw against a board to make them straight and quick with a consistent depth. But actually in an application that takes traffic like this it would have looked better and hold up better to use a cheap hand concrete groover to make the control joints when the concrete was wet so that the sides are smooth and consolidated instead of a rough cut by saw that can chip and flake off.

Agree 100% All the edging and grooving tools don't seem to have taken on with Thai Concreters, which is a shame really as it gives a much more professional finish.

"professional" Im afraid not here, its a like it or lump it scenario with many of the local builders.....a constant fight to try to make them do it "half" good.Hes back tomorrow and theyll be in then, a bit too late but hey ho , they wear me out.The first pour wa s buggered up by the concrete company.....couldnt find us..didnt call, supposed to be here at 11.15 am, arrived at 1.30, they are 3 miles away and have 1 main road and one small road to come down, its really easy and they had written instructions with the normal "whats the nearest Wat"

OK so builder not coming back until thursday = too long for my joints so I cut them in myself just Also dug the footings for the " cooking House" as the Wife calls it and concreted them in............got some more ready mix coming thursday so will fil the holes to the top with that, then do the beams and floor.....may as well use the ready mix.

So we said to the concrete man DRIVE SLOWLY and REVERSE down............... next thing there he is doing about 30kmh going forwards................ Im sorry but he has the brain of a peanut and we are left with the mess.........we must take out the concrete and YOU must pay for it they said , told em to bugger off, who is gonna fix the road due to your drivers stupidity!!WHY why dont they listen to what WE say, go backwards and go slowly!! KIN ANGRY as HELL!!!

So then I told them dont pull it out backwards, forwards would be the best way..............did they listen???? NO so they pulled it backwards and of course it fell even more into the hole, SO I said go get a TRACTOR and try pull it forwards, its big wheels will not sink in the ground......did they listen??? NO they bring another concrete lorry and its gets stuck too>>>>>>.. finally they said "we need tractor"You cant make it up, they have virtually destroyed what was ready to be concreted......do they care? not one bit! Then told us how much money they are losing by not delivering everywhere else............but of course the drivers "unique" driving skill had nothing to do with this fiasco.Mai pen rai, no one gets bollo**ed and tomorrow the same thing will happen from the same driver

The end result, trying to get out the one truck by using another has damaged the ground so much we cant do anymore down there now for maybe 2 months, they have broken through the hard crust to softer soil w e will have to fill with roadstone probably 20-40 tons. The Tractor had them out in 10 minutes after their 4.5 hour attempts, 4.5 hours of even more road destruction.Nothing learnt .............Oh and they dont want to deal with us again.From the manager down, no apology nothing. I hope they lost a lot of money today.

Road update.............builder pissed us around for 3 months, yes hes coming, coming soon, coming on the 10th, coming on the 20th.........well he aint coming tosser.New lot arrived to do the road cheaper than first bloke but crap at scoring th e road so told them not to, almost zero knowledge of concrete work, they are doing me some kerbs as well using 4 inch steel didnt even bang the sides, had to go round and show them, careless with concrete, no planning as to where they will do next..........imagine that man who tiles a room and starts in the doorway then reverse himself into a corner...........well thats themPhotos tomorrow after ive cleared up the mess.Seriously I dont know how any of them ever get a job building round by me, we have apparently 7 changs in our village of 15 houses .........I wouldnt touch any of them with a barge pole yet finding anyone here seems impossible.Been to all the local builders merchants and some just say "dont know" others recommend one man who we know is crap.Despair, a simple job really